Has anyone came across this type of rule for entering a comp?
“Once the winning recipe has been brewed at !@#$%^&* Beer Company, it is now owned by us, and can be brewed by us at any point in the future. If you are not comfortable with this, please reconsider your entry.”
Maybe its just the way its written, but sounds pretty shady in my opinion. especially since my recipe I’m considering is based off another local brewery, which I had received input from the owner/brewer himself. I would feel bad if I happened to win…
None of that would bother me. Just their lawyer talking. Our competition’s winning beer is also brewed for commercial sale. We don’t have that exact disclaimer in our rules, but our local liquor board wanted us to include the statement that the winning homebrewer gets no financial benefit from the commercially brewed beer. And the commercial brewery needed us to say that the name of the winning beer was subject to their approval.
Beer recipes are a dime a dozen. They can’t be copyrighted. You can argue over ownership, but change an ingredient or a the process and it is a new recipe. I wouldn’t worry about it, other than you friends input and trust being at risk.
that is totally normal. If a competition provides a “prize” of a brewery scaling up your winning beer… that is pretty cool. If they take the time and effort to include you in the process and the brewery brews the beer, and it turns out great - they are going to want to keep brewing it in the future maybe. They just want to make sure they don’t have to deal with some frivolous “lawsuit” of the brewer coming back and pretending they “own” the recipe and some how the brewery can’t make it again.
Totally reasonable to make that request in return for brewing the beer in a scale up.
As mentioned - recipes are a dime a dozen. I would give anyone any recipe I have, with every detail I could provide, simply for the asking.
Yep, normal. As mentioned recipes can only be protected if kept secret. Copyright will protect a published recipe in that particular form, but not the recipe itself.
Illegal - scanning or photocopying a page from BCS
Legal - typing and sharing it
Somebody I know that is going pro offered to buy a Kolsch recipe from another friend. If you can’t throw together a half decent kolsch grain bill, don’t go pro.
You guys are nicer then me. I make them work for recipes. Amanda received a long-winded diatribe about dark malts before I gave her the recipe a couple weeks later. I think of it as the timeshare presentation she had to sit through for Disney World tix. ;D
I have found that all really good Brewers will give up all of the secrets about their beer. They don’t worry about someone stealing their secrets. Some Brewers will even give water adjustments based on RO.
Homebrewers at least. Occasionally someone claims a special secret, but usually they don’t have a sample of the amazing secret beer with them… so, who knows right?
